Consequently, the DSD has a crucial role to play in administering social services and collaborating with the NPO sector to ensure peoples’ rights.

[6] The primary activities of the DSD directorate include the management and overview of services that seek to improve the quality of life of citizens, particularly due to unemployment, disability and old age.

She argues underfunding has created a two-tier system of care, in which government services are considerably better resourced than NGO counterparts.

Similarly, criticisms have also been leveled that the government is providing insufficient funding for the provision of shelters and services for women and LGBTQ victims of gender-based violence.

[9] During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government also faced backlash over its failure to provide food distribution to those in need, particularly school-aged children.

[12] In October 2023, a provincial branch of the Department of Social Development (DSD) in KwaZulu-Natal, was accused by a local group of NPOs to not be paying much needed subsidies, having a negative effect on upwards of 400 000 people.

[14] Some activists note that with respect to Gender-Based Violence, South Africa has good laws, but fails at implementation.